Board of Elections officials updating voter database

The Craven County Board of Elections is in the process of updating the voter database to reflect the changes that came with the 2013 redistricting for seats on the Craven County Board of Commissioners.

The Craven County Board of Elections is in the process of updating the voter database to reflect the changes that came with the 2013 redistricting for seats on the Craven County Board of Commissioners.

More than 61,000 active Craven County voters were expected to have new voter ID cards in their hands by the end of January, said Meloni Wray, elections director.

Now that the election board is finished updating the voter database, she said, “We will be mailing every active registered voter in Craven County a new voter card reflecting the changes in their voting jurisdictions.”

Wray said the first cards went to voters in Township 7, which had the most changes in Craven County Board of Commissioners district lines from the 2013 redistricting process.

That process redrew lines for commissioner districts for the first time in two decades, and the population of Township 7, which covers the area from Brices Creek, James City and Grantham to near Havelock, had grown the most over that period.

Voters in most Craven County townships now have received new cards. They should keep them andnot return them to the Board of Elections unless they want to make changes to any of the information on the cards, Wray said.

“If changes do need to be made, the voter indicates changes, signs the card and returns it to the Board of Elections,” she said.

Wray said cards returned to the Board of Elections with or without changes will be reissued to the voters.

“We are on schedule to meet our goal, which was to be finished by the first of February before the filing period beginning on Feb. 10 for the 2014 May Primary,” she said.

Voters in Craven also are getting notices this month from the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles and the Register of Deeds explaining how to get a Voter ID, birth certificate or marriage certificate free of charge if they do not have a current valid ID and can show proof they are a registered voter.

Wray said the notices coincide with Craven County Board of Elections’ mailing of the new county voter cards and the voter card has an information block advising of when the state’s new Voter ID law requirements take effect.

The Board of Elections relies on the postal service to deliver the voter registration cards to the proper address or return them undeliverable, she said.

“If someone receives a card at their address and the person to whom the card is addressed does not live at that address,” Wray said, “the person receiving the card should write ‘return to sender/does not live here’ on the card and return it by mail to the Board of Elections Office.”

Any card that comes back undeliverable gets a confirmation card mailed to the voter and this card is forwarded to the voter by the post office, if a forwarding order is on file, she said.

Page 2 of 2 - When a voter receives a confirmation card from the Board of Elections, the confirmation card must be returned to the elections board verifying the residence and mailing address.

If a card comes back after two attempts to deliver it, the voter is place on “inactive” status for eight years. If the voter attempts to vote anywhere within that eight years, they are asked to update their address on their voting record, Wray said.

If a voter is deceased, a relative may ask in writing for the person to be removed from the voter rolls.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sue.book@newbernsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.